Yandex is visiting Alfa Laboratories

Hello! We have great news!

Just the other day, our friends from Yandex came to us and talked about how and why they use OpenSource projects in development. How they develop the BEM methodology, how it is used in Yandex services and what tools they write for the whole community. It was very cool and thank you so much for it, and all the details, materials and what we learned from under the cut.

At Alfa Laboratories, we deal with products directly or indirectly related to e-business. These can be web or mobile applications that are focused on simplifying the interaction of our customers with the bank and their finances in general. All these products somehow have interfaces, and every day we solve problems related to their development. The thing is that these products are created by different teams, and it is very difficult to maintain the integrity of the style and bank code in all their diversity. Our clients should not hesitate to associate our products with the bank without any loud banners or explicit hints, and the development teams should not create new products from scratch. As a result, we have two fundamental tasks that must be solved in any product and in any company that thinks about the quality and convenience of its products and the optimization of resources aimed at developing interfaces.
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E-commerce is changing, growing and evolving. This is no longer just a banking lot. The last time in this area there are a lot of strong solutions from completely different companies, and we, in turn, begin to compete not only with banks. Awareness of this gives a powerful kick, and we must use the experience and share it not only between banks, but also between IT companies. It may seem a bit strange, but it is. Besides the fact that now we are competing in technology with IT companies, we also need to ensure the safety of our customers at a completely new level, and this is a doubly difficult task.

Yandex, a company with many years of experience in creating customer-oriented services and a huge burden. This is the IT giant number one in the Russian market. Over a long period of creating various interfaces for the whole variety of their products, Yandex developers have developed their own approaches and methodologies. From our side it would be strange not to take advantage of this and we invited them to visit.



Without any hesitation, Sergey Berezhnoy veged and Elena Jetpyspayeva mursya agreed and came to our “Alpha Laboratory”. They spent half a day with us and forced us to look at the development from a different angle. In the first part of the story, they tried to dispel our fears associated with the use of OpenSource solutions, and also told how Yandex is struggling with the risks that OpenSource puts before it, how the developers themselves influence the vector of development of projects and why do they do it all. A huge amount of knowledge has collapsed on us, which we hope will help us in the development of our products and will make us more flexible and faster in the future. Sergey Berezhnoy told about the projects that they develop outside and how they are used inside the company. When you make tools with the community, you get exactly the product that your customers want, because it is they who help you to make it.



This was only the first part of the story. The second part was devoted to the history of general technologies between several projects in Yandex. Using the example of search projects, Sergey Berezhnoy explained how it turns out to use common technologies in different teams when developing different projects. The story flowed in the format of free communication, so we could ask any questions that interested us so long ago, but we had no one to ask. We discussed in detail how the interfaces are built in “Yandex” using the BEM-methodology , as well as how it helps in reusing the code between teams. He talked about tools that help work with the methodology, as well as how the developers of Yandex create libraries of blocks and use them in various projects. It is impossible to overestimate how much it simplifies life. Thank you guys so much for the invaluable experience and a wonderful day in company with BEM.



Special thanks to Elena Jetpyspayeva for organizing the event, lively and fun communication. Guys, come to us again!

If you, like us, are interested in the development of interfaces, then just ask and you will receive the most detailed and clear answer, which generally can be.

Below are presentations from our colleagues:




Stay BEMed!